There’s my family’s annual pilgrimage to Apple Hill, where we will buy inordinate amounts of hot apple fritters, apple pie, apple-pumpkin bread, and sticky caramel apples that end up all over our daughter’s face. Not to mention the requisite box of apples picked (if we’re lucky and get there early) from crowd-filled u-pick orchards, which ensure we’ll be baking cobblers and sending sliced apples in lunchboxes for weeks.

There’s the touch of chill in the early morning air, that subtle scent that is a herald cry: “Fall is here! Fall is here!”

And the pumpkin … well … everything. Pumpkin-spiced coffees and cookies and pancakes and ciders and candles.

And the farm stands bursting with ripened apples and pears, freshly harvested corn, rainbows of heirloom tomatoes, and squashes transitioning from summer to winter.

There’s the slow return of my homemade chicken noodle soup — a cautious first appearance in September timidly works its way into rotation until, by October’s end, the savory bowl is an almost-weekly staple.

And then there’s a different, but nonetheless enticing, scent for the season: It’s that combined aroma of gloriously new pads of blank paper, books with as-yet-uncracked spines, and freshly sharpened No. 2 pencils.

Fall does indeed bear glorious fruits, and they’re all in focus in this September-October issue of edible Sacramento, which we’ve, OK, somewhat obviously, called our Farm-to-Fork Issue.

But, come on, how could we not seize the opportunity to show off all the Farm-to-Fork Capital brings to the table during September, the month it has designated as Farm-to-Fork Month? You’ll meet some of the valley’s biggest F2F visionaries, from the Selland family, whose restaurants were F2F long before it was cool; to chef Michael Tuohy, whose revolutionary commitment on behalf of Golden 1 Center to source only from local farms gives whole new meaning to the term good sports; to Andrea Lepore, whose innovative plan to give F2F producers a place to take their products to market could have dramatic results for farmers and culinary professionals alike.

You’ll see what’s brewing for Specialty Coffee Week and meet UC Davis academics who study coffee with scholarly passion. And you’ll go back to school to find out how Greater Sacramento is raising its next crop of farmers and chefs.